THEY. DID. IT!
THEY. DID. IT! 👏👏👏 Justin Steyer/KPLU

KPLU:

The non-profit Friends of 88.5 FM has reached a deal with Pacific Lutheran University to purchase KPLU.

After 50 years of serving Western Washington under PLU, 88.5 is set to become an independent, community-licensed station. The agreement, signed on Monday, still must be approved by the Federal Communications Commission. The deal represents the last major step toward stopping the proposed sale of the station to cross-town competitor KUOW, and preserving KPLU’s news and music.

This news gives me life. It should give local consumers of news and journalists everywhere, in the age of "Tronc" and mass media consolidation, hope. The campaign to save KPLU from being absorbed into KUOW has come a very long way since last fall, when the plan to merge the stations was presented to the public as a virtual fait accompli after some deliberate and tacky attempts to conceal the deal. Layoffs were contemplated at the time. But the community group buying the station has no plans to fire anyone, according to a statement today. Rather, the station will "retain all KPLU employees, including the 14-member independent local news team." It was those journalists themselves who played an instrumental role in the barnstorming fundraising campaign that raised $7 million in six months—the amount necessary to compete with UW's offer. From when we last checked in on the campaign, as reporters themselves became fundraisers and community organizers:

[Gabriel] Spitzer said becoming community-oriented fundraisers has taught the newsroom a vital and poignant lesson: "How important it will be for an independent KPLU to knit ourselves even more closely into the community—so these events, in some important ways, have helped us figure out who we are."

The station will need new call letters. I propose KFTW.